CBSS was subcontracted by EnviroWorks to undertake a site-specific Source-Pathway-Receptor (SPR) risk assessment and to determine water- and waste governance options for the proposed expansion of the Ash Disposal Facility (ADF) at the Matimba Power Station.

The Matimba Power Station, owned and operated by Eskom, is located in the Limpopo Province, approximately 14 km west of the town of Lephalale, in quaternary catchment A42J.  The power station produces around 6 megatons of coal fly ash (“CFA”) per annum, which is transported by means of a series of conveyors to an Ash Disposal Facility (“ADF”), located approximately 3 km to the south of the Power Station, where the CFA is continuously disposed of by means of ‘dry ashing’.  The ADF has a footprint of 440 ha, and because of height limitations posed by stability concerns due to the geotechnical properties of CFA, and the dry ashing disposal method, the footprint requires expansion by 211 ha, to a new total footprint of 651 ha, in order to ensure the availability of a further airspace capacity of 297 million m³ for the disposal of the CFA for the duration of the lifetime of the Power Station until 2055.